Uh oh! I hope reliability is not compromised by the time crunch. And we all know what the new model designation 340i means: Munich is scheming to push the 3-series range into an even higher price bracket. That's not a way to recoup lost sale.

Not sure how accurate this is. BMW has always been careful when it comes to non-M cars getting too close in power to M equivalents. A 360HP TT 340i and 410HP TT M3 seem too close. Anything's possible and it's too early to know for sure, but right now I'm betting it won't happen.

BMW has already announced the F01 740d (and presumably F10 540d in the near future) which is a 3.0L diesel with 300HP and 443 lb-ft. Honestly, this engine seems more likely in to be in the F30 lineup than what Car is reporting, and could be the 340 they're predicting.

I can't picture them downgrading the 3er convertible to a canvas roof either.

Not sure how accurate this is. BMW has always been careful when it comes to non-M cars getting too close in power to M equivalents. A 360HP TT 340i and 410HP TT M3 seem too close. Anything's possible and it's too early to know for sure, but right now I'm betting it won't happen.

BMW has already announced the F01 740d (and presumably F10 540d in the near future) which is a 3.0L diesel with 300HP and 443 lb-ft. Honestly, this engine seems more likely in to be in the F30 lineup than what Car is reporting, and could be the 340 they're predicting.

I can't picture them downgrading the 3er convertible to a canvas roof either.

Further down the model range, the 3.0-litre inline six powerplant features a couple more times. The 335i makes a comeback, although it loses a turbo and power drops to around 280bhp to make room for a completely new car, the 340i

Boo. The 330 will be the "lower end" BMW of the states and replace the 328.

Part of the strategy involves meeting the competition at established set-points. In the case of the 340i, it has the Audi S4/S5 clearly in its sights. The 3-level marketing strategy of Audi (A,S,RS) can be effectively countered by BMW's broader range of engines. As per C&D's latest comparo, the soft spot for BMW is the 335 vs. the S4, because the 335 lacks a real performance variant (ZMP is show without beef).

I have been surprised at how slow BMW is to respond to, what for me seemed obvious, future contingencies. Why not bring a 50+mpg 4 cyl to market in the US? Why not put some beef into the ZMP package to beat the S4 in that niche?

Seriously with the amount of issues that is typical of first year bmw's and the rest (HPFP) I would be very cautious of this model if bmw all of a sudden decided to push production up a full year. Seems like they are rushing into this new model.

Also, unless they plan on doing away with the 328 model it doesn't make much sense to have a 328, 335, 340 below the M3. A well optioned 335 now already pushes over 50K which isn't much off of a base M3. I just don't see how they could slot in another model inbetween.